Goin’ Up West

By Richard Perrins

In the 1930s my late, much loved, mother’s first job was in a now defunct department store, Dickins & Jones, in London’s West End. She used to talk about “Goin’ up West” to work.

London was one of the world’s biggest cities at the time, with a population of nearly 9 million. Its population is about the same size in 2026, though it is dwarfed today by modern megacities like Tokyo and Shanghai, which have superb, hyper modern transport systems for their more than 30 million inhabitants. London’s ageing infrastructure, though slowly and steadily improving, shows its age. Its parts, like mine, creak a little. 

In general, I would advise visitors to London to avoid driving, if possible. Our roads are narrow and congested, often built for horse and carriages or constructed at a time when there were few cars on the road. The average vehicle speed in London during daylight hours is about 18 kph. Our 16 km trip winding across the South London ‘burbs to see our grandsons can easily take us an hour or more. And we never drive into central London. Parking is horrifically expensive and the £18 (33 AUD) daily charge for entering the London Congestion Zone is a very effective deterrent. To be fair, the Zone has greatly improved air quality in the centre of London.

London’s public transport system, by contrast, though a continuous work of upgrading and modernisation, mostly functions well.  Only a minority of its 11 lines are air conditioned, however. I am writing this on a summer day that will probably break temperature records, when people have been told to avoid travel during the daytime if they can. I wonder if the same injunction is ever issued in Shanghai? 

If you’ve visited London, you may have taken the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow into the city centre. Its veteran trains have been serving Londoners since 1975. It is the next in line for an upgrade – postponed because of lack of funds till 2027 at the earliest – and will be the first deep Tube line to have air conditioned trains. I long for my local deep line, the Northern Line, to have an upgrade and aircon. Known informally as The Misery Line, it can be intolerably hot in the summer and its old rolling stock is extremely noisy, often breaching noise safety levels.

But in terms of convenience, the Northern Line is one of four train or underground routes I can use to go “up west”. Even better than that, London residents who are over 60, like me, have an incredibly  generous “Freedom Pass”, giving them free travel on buses, trains and the Tube on weekdays, after the morning rush hour, and all weekend. 

There is some understandable kickback about this. Pensioner friends who live outside London complain, quite rightly I think, that their benefit, a free bus pass at the official pension age of 66 (soon to be 67) is not remotely comparable to the subsidised travel of their London contemporaries, especially as their bus services are infrequent and can be unreliable. To rub salt into that running wound, my London pass gives me free travel on their buses! 

Younger generations, struggling to afford to buy eye wateringly priced London property, are also up in arms about this and other benefits, claiming, with some justification, I think, that their taxes are effectively subsidising their often comfortably off elders. 

Cynics might say that the freedom pass is so  generous because older folk tend to vote in elections. I couldn’t possibly comment. Anyway, I’m  “Goin’ Up West”. (For free. Shhh!) 

Richard Perrins

Posts by Richard Perrins